Not a mandate

Please don’t jump to the conclusion that I am a sore loser, but I just hope that Gov. Dayton, Sen. Franken and Rep. Nolan are wise enough to understand that their re-election is not a mandate to continue doing business as usual.

When looking at the percentages of the voters supporting them and the maps depicting the areas where they gained majorities, one can see that there is a large portion of Minnesota that feels they have been neglected.

For Dayton, in particular, if not for the densely populated areas of Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis counties, the election results would have been very different.

Gov. Dayton, 50.1 percent of the votes is not a mandate; Sen. Franken, 53.2 percent of the votes is not a mandate; Rep. Nolan, 48 percent of the votes certainly is not a mandate. My advice to these “winners” is to listen to the other half of the citizens of Minnesota, too, and tread lightly in your future endeavors. Work for ALL Minnesotans.

— Gary Schraml, Lindstrom

Productive?

I see the Nov. 9 Page One headline “It’s a divided Capitol — so can it still be productive?” as a dishonest use of top billing in your most widely distributed edition. It was clear to me its meaning was to shift the reality of the Republicans’ win in the ballot box last week to better fit someone’s biased narrative.

In the actual headline, it is assumed the outgoing Legislature, with all three branches under the control of Democrats, was productive. Plus, in the subheading, it is stated there now needs to be willingness to compromise to get things done.

Sure, the Democrats passed a lot of bills under one-party rule, but does that really mean it was productive for the state of Minnesota? I surely didn’t think so. In fact, I thought a lot of bills got jammed down our throats — for example, day care unionization. Obviously, the voting majority felt the same way. I think the Republicans were elected to take over the House because reasonable people want opposition to the heavy handedness of one-party rule.

The time for the Pioneer Press to ask for compromise was when the slate was fully tilted to the left. I don’t recall Bill Salisbury ever asking that question in the years of total Democratic Party control.

I think an honest headline would have read, “It’s a divided Capitol, the voters want the opposition heard.”

— Tom Braun, St. Paul

Not contacted

Interesting that Christopher Magan chose to contact Mr. Bodine for this article allowing him to air his concerns over the money spent on the recent ISD 197 referendum and stadium ballot questions (“Education issues drew millions in spending,” Nov. 10). Those with opposing views were apparently not contacted. Mr. Bodine and his “Vote Yes” pals outspent the far-smaller and all-volunteer “Vote No” group of citizens by a factor of at least 12 to 1 and received thousands in outside support, including PTAs and unions. He challenged the Better-Ed educational mailing pointing out the growing disparity between tax dollars spent and proficiency scores achieved. He incorrectly wondered whether Better-Ed was trying to influence his vote — the ballot questions were not even mentioned.

Even more surprisingly for a former 197 school board member, he saw no conflict or inappropriate (and possibly illegal) lobbying by the district in several general mailings to taxpayers urging support and even going so far as to indicate artificially low costs for the 10-year term of these levies and bond questions. Each of these ISD 197 mailings was absolutely intended to influence the recipients’ votes. Notwithstanding the overtly supportive arguments for these questions, each piece contained the following specious statement: “This publication is not circulated on behalf of any candidate or ballot question.” Really? Where is his righteous indignation over this outrageous lie?

Those who opposed these tax-increasing measures will continue to focus their attention on results achieved, especially with the additional $12 million for iPads for every student in grades 3-12 and one for every two students in grades K-2. These results will be shared with the voters of ISD 197.

— John Fisher, Mendota Heights

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Opinion

RE-READING THE SECOND AMENDMENT In the wake of yet another school shooting carried out by an individual, I re-read the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. We are supposed to have a well-regulated militia. If we had one, members would be encouraged to defend liberty and not settle personal grievances by the use of firearms. Erik Westgard, Shoreview RESORTING...

New mayors in both of the Twin Cities have made clear that affordable housing ranks high among priorities for their administrations. But what’s a mayor to do about a problem as big and complex as this one? We asked two nonprofit housing experts — Paul Williams of Minneapolis-based Project for Pride in Living and Deidre Schmidt of St. Paul-based CommonBond...

In the immortal words of the late and great Jimmy Cannon, no one asked me but … The politics of opioid abuse: Don’t get me wrong. This problem is real, tragic and widespread, here and across the nation. Opioids were connected to 42,000 deaths in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The president and Congress want to throw billions...

Do you remember when Edina was represented at the state Legislature — and Minnesota was represented at the Republican National Convention — by a black attorney? Probably not. John Frank Wheaton, a former shoe shine boy, became the first black man elected to the Minnesota Legislature in 1898, and his aristocratic district included Minneapolis’ Kenwood neighborhood and Edina. Across the...

No obscure Supreme Court ruling deserves its obscurity less than Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, the transformational 1977 case in which the justices upheld mandatory dues for public-employee unions. At the time, collective bargaining in the public sector was new, an outgrowth of broader social upheavals, which included 1,400 public-employee work stoppages nationwide between 1965 and 1970. Abood assured...